The Doctors' Lisa Masterson fulfills her mother's dream

Jun. 15, 2011
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Written by

Cara Hedgepeth

Dr. Lisa Masterson appears on the Emmy-winning TV show The Doctors.

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Check out what Masterson and the other doctors advise in these quick summer first aid fixes at USAWeekend.com

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Some would say Lisa Masterson is living the dream. She works as an OB-GYN at Los Angeles’ Cedar Sinai Medical Center, she’s the head of a non-profit organization, and she is one of the stars of the Emmy-winning television show The Doctors. But life wasn’t always so sweet for Masterson.

As a girl, Masterson and her mother — a woman who was determined to give her daughter more opportunities than Louisiana had to offer — moved from city to city. Her mother poured all of her resources into ensuring her daughter got the best education. In her memoir, Paper Dollhouse, Masterson recounts how her mother’s spirit, love and resiliency pushed her to succeed. USA WEEKEND caught up with her about the book.

How did you get through the tough times?

Home is really about where the people you love are. There are a lot of meanings to the title Paper Dollhouse : Work with what you’ve got. If you believe in it, a paper dollhouse can actually be better than a real dollhouse. But it also means that a house is about what goes into it. It’s more about the heart than the materials. As long as I had my mother, it didn’t really matter where we were.

You’ve done everything from opening your own medical spa to establishing birthing centers in Africa and now you’ve written a book.

How do you decide what project to take on next?

Everything has been an extension of what I do as a doctor. Whatever I feel is my passion and extremely important, that’s what I take on. It’s about trying to find the Wonder Woman in me. And I hope everyone tries to find that energy to reach out and help others. That’s what’s really important in life.

How was writing this book different from all of the other projects you've done?

A memoir is really hard. It’s really hard to go back to reliving when my mother passed away because it is still something I recover from. But getting through grief of that stature is something that happens to a lot of people and it’s important to see how other people get through it.

How do you meld media and medicine?

When I started making television appearances, I realized that a lot of my patients were absorbing more when I said it on TV rather than when they came into the office. When a patient is in the exam room, fear mutes the information. It’s nice to take that out of the office. When they’re in their homes, they’re ready to absorb it. I’ve found that to be a very positive tool.